Blog

Bar the Doors and Bang the Shutters Down, my fourth solo album. Due for release September 1st Available via Bandcamp and on all major streaming platforms, in person from me and (if you absolutely must) from the retail behemoth masquerading as a South American...

If memory serves, not so long after Eddie Walker quit his precarious day job in local government for the safe, predictable and prosperous life of a travelling musician, he chauffeured Vin Garbutt to and from folk club gigs, and begged floor spots (and bookings) each...

In the early 1970s some bright spark decided School needed new laboratories and set about finding the moolah. Term followed miserable fund-raising term full of begging letters, boot sales, money-making schemes and sponsored marathons.  The one bright spot was a series...

Folk song and Tony Rose met and fell for each other at Oxford University in the early 1960s, when he was reading modern languages and taking his turn as President of the Heritage Society, the university folk club. He moved to London to teach, but was offered so many...

Last Mothering Sunday, on a trip to the magnificent ruins of Fountains Abbey, I was ambushed by an ear-worm that went round and round in my head all day and simply wouldn’t stop: ‘And as I gazed in wonder the towering walls did humble me, and never growing weary...

I actually tried to buy Sunny Memories, Caddick’s second album, laboriously sending off a cheque to Folk News. Instead there came a letter: ‘Sorry, none left. I’ve sent you his latest LP and an extra one.’ The extra was Rough Music, his first; the latest was Reasons...

I thought they were better known. Derek was a weekly fixture at Barnsley Folk Club in the mid 1970s, instantly recognisable: egg-bald head, flamboyant beard and whiskers. Yet when I was thinking about writing this, looking for background info, there was little trace....

Drop the stylus in the groove where it belongs, for the first time in years (and years and years), and the songs jump off the vinyl like old friends, instantly welcome and familiar. The lyrics come back effortlessly, and so do great stretches of stage patter. I’m...

Sad to learn that Kelly Joe’s died. More poignant because it was sudden and he was only 62 (same age as me, coincidentally, which makes the cold breeze blow across the back of my neck). He wasn’t a major influence for me, but I saw him play a mesmerising live show at...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-piU4TSF3o&list=OLAK5uy_m5GqFYt0-7FPHoYzLSTF6yx1QEnPMvyjo   This album lived only in memory until I was lucky enough to reacquire it last year. It’s long been out of print, and has never been released on CD but, fortunately,...